Surgepays Inc (SURG) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the SurgePays First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) I will now turn the call over to Brian Prenoveau. Please go ahead, sir.

歡迎參加 SurgePays 2023 年第一季財報電話會議。 （接線員指示）我現在將電話轉給 Brian Prenoveau。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the SurgePays First Quarter 2023 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. Today's date is May 11, 2023. And on the call today from SurgePays are Brian Cox, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tony Evers, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝接線員，大家下午好。歡迎參加 SurgePays 2023 年第一季財報網路廣播和電話會議。今天的日期是 2023 年 5 月 11 日。SurgePays 總裁兼執行長 Brian Cox 今天接聽了電話；和財務長托尼·埃弗斯。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward-looking statements as they are defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, please see SurgePays most recent filings with the SEC.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒大家，本次電話會議可能包含根據1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》定義的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述受到某些風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與實際結果有所不同。實質上來自於前瞻性陳述中所表達的內容。有關此類風險和不確定性的討論，請參閱 SurgePays 最近向 SEC 提交的文件。

All forward-looking statements made today reflect our current expectations only, and we undertake no obligation to update any statement to reflect the events that occur after this call. Also during the course of today's call, the company will be discussing one or more non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the press release we issued this afternoon.

今天發表的所有前瞻性聲明僅反映我們目前的預期，我們沒有義務更新任何聲明以反映本次電話會議後發生的事件。此外，在今天的電話會議期間，該公司還將討論一項或多項非公認會計準則財務指標。我們今天下午發布的新聞稿中包含了這些非公認會計原則財務指標與最直接可比較的公認會計原則指標的調節表。

Copies of today's press release are accessible on SurgePays Investor Relations website, ir.surgepays.com. In addition, SurgePays Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, will also be available on the SurgePays Investor Relations website.

今天新聞稿的副本可在 SurgePays 投資者關係網站 ir.surgepays.com 上取得。此外，截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日的季度的 SurgePays 10-Q 表格也將在 SurgePays 投資者關係網站上提供。

And now I'd like to turn the call over to President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Cox.

現在我想將電話轉給總裁兼執行長布萊恩考克斯。

Thanks, Brian. First of all, I'd like to thank our shareholders and those interested in SurgePays for joining the call. As we have expanded and are continuing to expand our audience, I'd like to give a brief overview of who we are, what we do and our target market. SurgePays brings financial and telecom products to the underbanked and underserved populations of the United States where they live and where they shop. Our goal is to build the largest direct distribution network of underbanked products and services in the country.

謝謝，布萊恩。首先，我要感謝我們的股東和對 SurgePays 感興趣的人加入這次電話會議。隨著我們已經並將繼續擴大我們的受眾群體，我想簡要概述我們是誰、我們做什麼以及我們的目標市場。 SurgePays 為美國銀行服務不足和服務不足的人群提供金融和電信產品，幫助他們居住和購物。我們的目標是建立全國最大的銀行服務不足的產品和服務的直接分銷網絡。

The underbank do the majority of their financial transactions at their trusted local convenience store that closest to their home. SurgePays utilizes these stores as the points of distribution into these communities. As we onboard stores to our fintech software platform, we enable the clerk at that store to perform transactions such as prepaid wireless activation and payments, along with reloading debit cards and other financially-enabling services to improve the daily lives of those without traditional access to banks, credit and checking accounts.

欠銀行銀行的大部分金融交易都是在離家最近的值得信賴的當地便利商店進行的。 SurgePays 利用這些商店作為這些社區的分銷點。當我們將商店納入我們的金融科技軟體平台時，我們使該商店的店員能夠執行諸如預付費無線激活和支付等交易，以及充值借記卡和其他金融支援服務，以改善那些無法傳統訪問的人們的日常生活。銀行、信用和支票帳戶。

One of the really great things is that our revenue is directly tied to how many essential services we provide to those who need the most. The Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, has been the revenue driver for SurgePays growth over the last 2 years, taking us from a company with $50 million in revenue in 2021 to $121 million in 2022 with roughly breakeven profitability. In 2023, we are guiding to $190 million of sales with positive cash flow.

真正偉大的事情之一是我們的收入與我們為最需要的人提供多少基本服務直接相關。經濟實惠的連結計畫 (AC​​P) 是過去兩年 SurgePays 成長的收入驅動力，使我們從 2021 年收入 5,000 萬美元的公司增至 2022 年收入 1.21 億美元，獲利能力大致達到收支平衡。 2023 年，我們的目標銷售額為 1.9 億美元，現金流為正。

The ACP offers a federal subsidy for a tablet device in a monthly cellular broadband Internet service to the recipients of any other income-based government benefit such as Medicaid, Veterans Pension, Section 8 and most notably, the program historically called food stamps or EBT, but now goes by the name SNAP. There are several wireless companies out there with licenses to offer the ACP program to the public. However, we are uniquely positioned as the only ACP company that owns its own customer relationship management software platform that's integrated with the FCC's database and also AT&T and T-Mobile.

ACP 為每月蜂窩寬頻網路服務中的平板電腦設備提供聯邦補貼，向任何其他基於收入的政府福利（例如醫療補助、退伍軍人退休金、第8 款，以及歷史上稱為食品券或EBT 的計劃）的接受者提供聯邦補貼。但現在更名為 SNAP。有幾家無線公司擁有向公眾提供 ACP 計劃的許可證。然而，我們的定位獨特，是唯一一家擁有自己的客戶關係管理軟體平台的 ACP 公司，該軟體平台與 FCC 的資料庫以及 AT&T 和 T-Mobile 整合。

Further, we are the only ACP company that owns one of the few prepaid transaction platforms that has a nationwide network of convenience stores. This trifecta competitive advantage paves the way for us to be the only ACP company able to do brick-and-mortar sign-ups inside convenience stores, which means store owners can earn revenue by helping those in their underserved community get connected.

此外，我們是唯一一家擁有少數擁有全國便利商店網路的預付費交易平台之一的 ACP 公司。這三項競爭優勢為我們成為唯一一家能夠在便利商店內進行實體註冊的 ACP 公司鋪平了道路，這意味著店主可以透過幫助服務不足的社區中的人們建立聯繫來賺取收入。

We are utilizing this great ACP program as the enticing catalyst to build what is now over 25,000 stores to be onboarded with a staging target of less than 12 months. In some areas, more than 30% of the transactions at convenience stores and supermarkets are using a SNAP card, which is the government benefit. Every customer who pulls out that card in the store is eligible for ACP.

我們正在利用這項偉大的 ACP 計畫作為誘人的催化劑，建造目前超過 25,000 家的商店，分階段目標是在 12 個月內完成。在某些地區，便利商店和超市有30%以上的交易都使用SNAP卡，這是政府的福利。每位在商店中取出該卡的顧客都有資格獲得 ACP。

What's even more exciting is that ACP is limited to 1 per household. And through our surveys, we know that each household has 3 to 4 smartphones on another prepaid wireless company. With our presence in these stores where these customers shop, and the ability for these customers to pay their monthly prepaid wireless bills at the same store, it's a fantastic launching pad for our non-ACP prepaid wireless subscriber push later this year.

更令人興奮的是，ACP 僅限每戶 1 個。透過我們的調查，我們知道每個家庭在另一家預付費無線公司擁有 3 到 4 部智慧型手機。憑藉我們在這些客戶購物的商店中的存在，以及這些客戶能夠在同一家商店支付每月的預付費無線帳單的能力，這是我們今年稍後推出的非ACP 預付費無線用戶的絕佳起點。

Another exciting facet of our business is now the store owner is making money directly in partnership with helping his community, and we're enabling this. Directly, because of this, I've never seen a warmer reception to upselling and distributing other products to a store. Not only does our software platform have a navigation interface similar to a website for doing these transactions, it also has a wholesale marketplace back office, where store owners can order high-margin products that are in demand directly from the manufacturer. These products are the impulse consumables by the register that many store owners in rural areas especially have difficulty obtaining or the minimum orders from their local distributors are just too high.

我們業務的另一個令人興奮的方面是，現在店主透過幫助他的社區直接賺錢，而我們正在實現這一點。正因為如此，我從未見過對向商店追加銷售和分銷其他產品如此熱烈的歡迎。我們的軟體平台不僅有一個類似網站的導航介面來進行這些交易，它還有一個批發市場後台，店主可以直接從製造商訂購高利潤的產品。這些產品屬於收銀的衝動消費品，許多農村地區的店主尤其難以取得，或是當地經銷商的最低訂單量過高。

Using ACP to add stores to our network by the tens of thousands, grows our ACP subscriber base, our prepaid top-up and payment revenue and give those points of distribution for selling other third-party products into these communities nationwide. This is the mindset or the driving force for parlaying the success of the ACP program into exponential revenue growth in our other verticals. We are piggybacking this hot reception by store owners to have access to this offering.

使用ACP 將數以萬計的商店添加到我們的網路中，增加了我們的ACP 用戶群、預付費充值和支付收入，並為在全國範圍內的這些社區銷售其他第三方產品提供了這些分銷點。這是將 ACP 計劃的成功轉化為我們其他垂直行業的指數級收入增長的心態或驅動力。我們藉助店主的熱烈歡迎來獲得此產品。

Even with the majority of our team's energy focused on this longer-term growth model, I'm pleased to announce that the first quarter of 2023 continues the profitability trend we began to see at the end of 2022, delivering net income of $4.5 million and EBITDA over $5 million. With our funding in place, we've secured a consistent supply of tablets at a significantly lower cost. And in the meantime, we've built out the infrastructure to distribute them in the most efficient means possible. We should no longer see periods of throttling growth due to running out of devices. We expect revenue to ramp higher in future quarters.

儘管我們團隊的大部分精力都集中在這種長期成長模式上，但我很高興地宣布，2023 年第一季將延續我們在 2022 年底開始看到的獲利趨勢，實現淨利潤 450 萬美元， EBITDA超過500 萬美元。有了資金到位，我們就能以顯著降低的成本獲得穩定的平板電腦供應。同時，我們已經建立了基礎設施，以盡可能最有效的方式分發它們。我們不應再看到因設備耗盡而導致成長放緩的情況。我們預計未來幾季的營收將增加。

As I mentioned in the last quarter's call, the key metric is new stores on our platform going forward. More stores on our platform means more ACP sign-ups, more prepaid wireless subscribers, more products on the shelf, more transactions over our fintech platform and more sales per individual store. As always, we're focused on managing our cash and our cash flow while deploying that cash to maximize growth.

正如我在上個季度的電話會議中提到的，關鍵指標是我們平台上未來的新商店。我們平台上的商店越多，意味著ACP 註冊人數越多、預付費無線用戶越多、貨架上的產品越多、我們金融科技平台上的交易越多，以及每家商店的銷售額也越高。一如既往，我們專注於管理現金和現金流，同時部署現金以實現最大化成長。

We expected first quarter revenues to align with fourth quarter 2022 revenues and is precisely what happened but with strong positive cash flow. We anticipate the full benefit of our lending facility to be realized toward the end of the second quarter, with growth accelerating quickly and continuing into the second half of the year. We still expect 13,000 stores to operate on the SurgePays network by the end of the year and see positive operating cash flow during the year and only looking to raise capital for a defined opportunistic purpose.

我們預計第一季營收將與 2022 年第四季營收保持一致，事實也確實如此，但現金流強勁。我們預計我們的貸款工具的全部效益將在第二季末實現，成長迅速加速並持續到今年下半年。我們仍然預計到今年年底將有 13,000 家商店在 SurgePays 網路上運營，並在年內看到積極的營運現金流，並且只希望為特定的機會主義目的籌集資金。

I don't normally enjoy preparing for these calls but stopping for a minute to see the fruits of your labor has changed my mind a bit, considering how the fruit looks now. I think our next couple of calls will continue elevating my smile as we're able to continue shifting gears upward. Until then, thanks go out to the SurgePays team for pushing forward and delivering on a daily basis.

我通常不喜歡為這些電話做準備，但停下來看看你的勞動成果，考慮到果實現在的樣子，我的想法有點改變。我認為接下來的幾個電話將繼續提升我的笑容，因為我們能夠繼續向上轉變。在此之前，感謝 SurgePays 團隊每天的推動和交付。

I'll turn the call over to Tony to review our financial results briefly before summarizing today's call. Tony?

在總結今天的電話會議之前，我會將電話轉給托尼，簡要回顧一下我們的財務表現。托尼？

Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. I will begin my overview of the first quarter's financial results. For the quarter, we reported revenues of $34.8 million compared to $21.1 million in the first quarter of 2022, representing an increase of 64%. The increased sales for the quarter were primarily attributable to subscriber growth in our mobile broadband business. Gross profit increased 192% in the first quarter to $7.7 million compared to $2.6 million in the year-ago period. First quarter gross margin also showed significant improvement up to 22.1% versus the 12.5% in the first quarter last year. SG&A expenses decreased by 22% year-over-year. This was primarily driven by a decrease in compensation expense of $875,000 from Q1 2022 to Q1 2023.

謝謝你，布萊恩，大家下午好。我將開始概述第一季的財務表現。我們報告的本季營收為 3,480 萬美元，而 2022 年第一季的營收為 2,110 萬美元，成長了 64%。本季銷售額的成長主要歸因於我們行動寬頻業務的用戶成長。第一季毛利成長 192%，達到 770 萬美元，去年同期為 260 萬美元。第一季毛利率也顯著改善，從去年第一季的 12.5% 升至 22.1%。 SG&A 費用年減 22%。這主要是由於從 2022 年第一季到 2023 年第一季補償費用減少了 875,000 美元。

Income from operations was positive for the quarter at $4.7 million compared to a loss of $1 million for the year ago period. Net income for the quarter was $4.5 million or a gain of $0.32 per basic share compared to a net loss of $1.2 million or a loss of $0.10 per basic share in 2022 Q1. Of the $4.5 million gain in the first quarter of 2023 showed an increase of gross margin of 13% over Q1 of 2022. Other income included a 33% gain on our investments in Centrecom.

本季營運收入為正數 470 萬美元，而去年同期則虧損 100 萬美元。本季淨利為 450 萬美元，即每股基本股收益 0.32 美元，而 2022 年第一季淨虧損 120 萬美元，即每股基本股虧損 0.10 美元。在 2023 年第一季 450 萬美元的收益中，毛利率比 2022 年第一季成長了 13%。其他收入包括我們對 Centrecom 投資的 33% 收益。

Turning to the balance sheet, liquidity and cash flow. Our cash balance as of March 31 was $8.9 million compared to $7 million at the end of -- year-end 2022. Accounts receivables have increased by $400,000 from year-end 2022 to $9.7 million. The receivable is from the U.S. government for the mobile broadband subsidy. Payment usually occurs in the last day of the month following the verification of a new customer with USAC. Given our strengthened financial position, higher cash balance and capital structure, our cash allocation priorities focused on investing in the business and maintaining ample liquidity for future growth.

轉向資產負債表、流動性和現金流。截至 3 月 31 日，我們的現金餘額為 890 萬美元，而 2022 年底為 700 萬美元。應收帳款較 2022 年年底增加了 40 萬美元，達到 970 萬美元。應收帳款來自美國政府的行動寬頻補貼。付款通常在 USAC 驗證新客戶後的當月最後一天進行。鑑於我們增強的財務狀況、更高的現金餘額和資本結構，我們的現金分配優先重點是投資於業務並為未來成長保持充足的流動性。

I'll now pass the call back to Brian for some closing remarks. Brian?

現在我將把電話轉回給布萊恩，讓他做一些結束語。布萊恩？

Thanks, Tony. Hopefully, it's clear what we are building here at SurgePays. We've succeeded and continued to succeed in making significant advances in the financial profile of the company while doing our best to protect shareholder interest. We are poised to create one of the largest direct distribution networks of underbanked products and services in the country and a vast market with tremendous growth potential awaits. These results have proven we can do that while delivering positive cash flow.

謝謝，托尼。希望大家能夠清楚了解我們在 SurgePays 正在建造的內容。我們已經並將繼續成功地在公司財務狀況方面取得重大進展，同時盡最大努力保護股東利益。我們準備創建全國最大的銀行服務不足的產品和服務的直接分銷網絡之一，並且擁有巨大增長潛力的廣闊市場正在等待著我們。這些結果證明我們可以做到這一點，同時提供正現金流。

Thank you so much for your time today. We will now open up the call to questions. Operator?

非常感謝您今天抽出時間。我們現在開始接受提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) And our first question today will come from Ed Woo with Ascendiant Capital.

（操作員說明）今天我們的第一個問題將來自 Ascendiant Capital 的 Ed Woo。

Congratulations on the quarter. My question is the economic environment continues to get weaker. Have you noticed any change with your convenience store partners, either with their customer base?

恭喜本季。我的問題是經濟環境持續惡化。您是否注意到您的便利商店合作夥伴及其客戶群發生了任何變化？

Yes. Good question, Ed. Thanks for dialing in. We've seen -- I've been involved with convenience stores and delivering underbanked products for 20 years now. One of the things that I've noticed -- and it is proportionate to the macro environment is -- there's 2 components there. The stores are looking for ways to be more efficient with their capital, and then consumers are looking for ways to obviously get more from their capital or their income. So this always presents a really unique opportunity for us because considering that -- like we talked about, we have the competitive advantage where we're normally the value-based deliverable, the product, and we're delivering the best value at the best cost directly to them.

是的。好問題，艾德。感謝您撥打我們的電話。我們已經看到——我從事便利商店業務並提供銀行服務不足的產品已有 20 年了。我注意到的一件事——它與宏觀環境成比例——有兩個組成部分。商店正在尋找更有效地利用其資本的方法，然後消費者也在尋找明顯從其資本或收入中獲得更多收益的方法。因此，這總是為我們提供了一個真正獨特的機會，因為考慮到——就像我們談到的那樣，我們擁有競爭優勢，我們通常是基於價值的可交付成果、產品，並且我們正在最好地提供最佳價值直接為他們帶來成本。

When you have moments in time like this where people are aware and they take a step back and they evaluate things instead of just staying in that in that same rut in the road financially, it's always good for the value-based companies like us delivering a better cost product. So it's not so much that all of a sudden you see more people moving into an underbanked, underserved neighborhood because there's typically not a whole lot of houses for rent. Those neighborhoods are usually pretty packed already. So I don't think that all of a sudden, there's this explosion of customers. It's the customer's awareness that changes, and it's the store's awareness.

當你遇到這樣的時刻時，人們意識到了這一點，他們退後一步，評估事情，而不是僅僅在財務上停留在同樣的軌道上，這對於像我們這樣以價值為基礎的公司來說總是有好處的。更好的成本產品。因此，並不是說突然間你會看到更多的人搬進銀行服務不足、服務不足的社區，因為通常沒有大量的房屋可供出租。這些社區通常已經擠滿了人。所以我不認為顧客會突然激增。改變的是顧客的意識，也是商店的意識。

If we have a way for that store owner to make more money without having to put out capital for inventory because most of our products are just transaction. So for example, he takes down the number, enrolls -- helps us enroll someone for ACP. That store owner just made $12. He didn't put out any money to earn that money. So that's why it's such a hot product for him, and our other transaction products, he doesn't have to lay out money, products sit on the shelf and then wait 30, 60 days to upsell that product with a risk of the inventory going bad. So it's a really strategic time for us.

如果我們有辦法讓店主賺更多的錢，而不必投入庫存資金，因為我們的大多數產品只是交易。例如，他記下電話號碼，進行登記——幫助我們為某人登記參加 ACP。那個店主剛剛賺了 12 美元。他沒有花任何錢來賺那筆錢。所以這就是為什麼它對他來說是一個如此熱門的產品，而我們的其他交易產品，他不需要花錢，產品放在貨架上，然後等待30、60 天來追加銷售該產品，冒著庫存耗盡的風險壞的。所以這對我們來說是一個非常具有戰略意義的時刻。

And I think it's one of those windows of time that we really want to take advantage of because when times get better, these products are still going to be there, and we're still going to have these relationships. So I think that's the opportunity, and that's the window of time for us related to the macroeconomic situation.

我認為這是我們真正想要利用的時間窗口之一，因為當情況好轉時，這些產品仍然會存在，而且我們仍然會擁有這些關係。所以我認為這就是機會，這就是我們與宏觀經濟情勢相關的時間窗口。

Your next question will come from Adam Waldo with Lismore Partners.

您的下一個問題將由 Lismore Partners 的 Adam Waldo 提出。

So I wanted to just get a little bit to see to what extent you guys could provide a little bit of guidance on the balancing of the continued hyper growth in the business through the ACP on the one hand and improving profitability by EBITDA margins and free cash flow on the other. So obviously, you had a very nice quarter here in the first quarter in that regard. Some of that was due to the timing around the device delivery cadence. You've given guidance for the full year for operating cash flow to be positive and haven't given margin guidance in your press release. But can you talk a little bit to what you would see the progression of margin structures and cash flow looking like over the year as you try to continue to balance both scaling up subscribers and improving profitability and cash flow.

因此，我想了解你們在多大程度上可以提供一些指導，一方面透過 ACP 平衡業務的持續高速成長，另一方面透過 EBITDA 利潤率和自由現金提高獲利能力流向對方。顯然，在這方面，第一季的表現非常好。其中一些是由於設備交付節奏的時間安排造成的。你們已經給了全年經營現金流為正值的指導，但在新聞稿中沒有給予利潤率指引。但是，當您試圖繼續平衡擴大訂戶規模和提高盈利能力和現金流時，您能談談您在這一年中看到的利潤結構和現金流的進展嗎？

Sure. No, that's a really astute question, by the way. I appreciate that. Because that right there is probably I'd say, on average of 30 minutes to an hour a day, the debate back and forth that Tony and I, our CFO, have when we're laying this out. So it's not just kind of what I call a jailbreak strategy of just get it done and go get sales, it's methodical and making sure we're making money because while, obviously, we are a public company, we're on the call right now, the core executives in our company come from the entrepreneurial, "Hey, we need to make money mindset," where it is our goal to make money and expand those margins as much as possible.

當然。不，順便說一句，這是一個非常精明的問題。我很感激。因為我可能會說，托尼和我（我們的財務長）在製定這項計劃時，平均每天要進行 30 分鐘到一個小時的來回辯論。因此，這不僅僅是我所說的越獄策略，即完成任務並進行銷售，它是有條不紊的，確保我們賺錢，因為雖然我們顯然是一家上市公司，但我們隨時待命現在，我們公司的核心管理人員都具有企業家精神，“嘿，我們需要賺錢的心態”，我們的目標是賺錢並盡可能擴大利潤。

So the thing that we look at -- and getting off into margins in the press release and what have you is a little bit challenging. But to add -- I want to add a little bit more color to why of all the things that I talked about in the press release and the script of why the stores are so advantageous for us as a distribution point for ACP, for our own MVNO subscribers and all the other products we sell. And then using ACP is that golden ticket to really just pave that way and open the door for us. It's not just the model. It's the cost.

因此，我們所關注的事情 - 以及在新聞稿中獲得利潤以及您擁有的東西有點具有挑戰性。但要補充的是——我想為我在新聞稿中談到的所有事情以及為什麼這些商店作為 ACP 的分銷點對我們如此有利的原因添加一點色彩，對於我們自己來說MVNO 用戶和我們銷售的所有其他產品。然後，使用 ACP 就是一張金票，可以真正為我們鋪平道路並打開大門。這不僅僅是模型。這就是成本。

When we're paying folks out there in tents that go out and set up the pop-up tents, that's their only source of income. They're traveling hotels, gas, and their only source of income is doing the ACP program. So at the end of the day, those people require a much higher, let's call it, a spiff, a bounty, a payment for that. The store -- this is a simple quick transaction at the store where we're simply using them to get the telephone number where our software can then engage that customer by way of chat through SMS so that the heavy lifting of that subscriber activation is done by our people. So that store one is quick now. So we're paying the store $10 to $12 as opposed to paying someone in the field $50.

當我們向那些在帳篷裡搭建臨時帳篷的人付錢時，這是他們唯一的收入來源。他們住在旅館、加油，唯一的收入來源是參加 ACP 計畫。所以歸根究底，這些人需要更高的報酬，我們可以稱之為，一筆小費，一筆賞金，一筆報酬。商店——這是商店中的一項簡單快速交易，我們只是使用它們來獲取電話號碼，然後我們的軟體可以通過短信聊天的方式與該客戶互動，從而完成訂閱者激活的繁重工作由我們的人民。所以那家店現在速度很快。因此，我們向商店支付 10 至 12 美元，而不是向現場人員支付 50 美元。

So when you look at utilizing a borrowing base and our access to capital and really looking at that globally and stay another year and saying, okay, what's more important here? Are we trying to put up numbers every 90 days just to make certain people out there happy, or at the end of that year, at the end of that 2 years, do we want to squeeze in? And again, simple math. Our devices used to be $93, now they're $65 ballpark. Our field sales cost us $50, at a store it cost us $12. If you run the math, I can get 4 store customers for every 3 field sales.

因此，當您考慮利用借貸基礎和我們獲得資本的機會並真正在全球範圍內審視這一點時，再呆一年並說，好吧，這裡更重要的是什麼？我們是否試圖每 90 天公佈一次數字，只是為了讓某些人感到高興，還是在那一年年底，在那兩年結束時，我們想擠進去？再次，簡單的數學。我們的設備過去售價為 93 美元，現在約為 65 美元。我們的現場銷售費用為 50 美元，在商店則為 12 美元。如果你算一下，每 3 次現場銷售我就能吸引 4 位商店顧客。

So that's -- when you talk about that, that's why our bandwidth and our energy and our focus has been pushed not only on that from a standpoint of the margins, but also think about this. You kind of -- you didn't ask this, but it's kind of in line with that, customer retention and attrition. If that tent rolls through town and it gets rid of all of its devices and gone. It's gone. It doesn't come back. The salesperson goes to the next town. If that customer ever has an issue, nobody to go to except the next tent that comes to town, if there's -- the tablet breaks or there's an issue, most of these people don't know their company.

所以，當你談論這個問題時，這就是為什麼我們的頻寬、我們的精力和我們的重點不僅從利潤的角度被推到了這一點上，而且還要考慮這一點。你沒有問這個，但這與客戶保留和流失是一致的。如果那個帳篷滾動穿過城鎮，它就會擺脫所有設備並消失。它消失了。它不會回來。銷售人員前往下一個城鎮。如果該客戶遇到問題，除了進城的下一個帳篷外，沒有人可以去，如果平板電腦壞了或出現問題，大多數人都不知道他們的公司。

If it's the store that they go to 3 to 5x a week, and they can go back in there and that store owner has a very small residual payment just for that customer staying on the product. Well, that store owner has a vested interest to say, "Hey, Adam, hey, man, tell you what, text your problem to SURG, and the customer service, they'll help you out. They got -- they'll take care of it. And if you need anything else, let me know. They got an e-mail address and telephone number. We can help you. We got your back." So it's a completely different mindset of that customer engagement being in that community permanently for retention, for lower cost. And keep in mind, too, -- you asked specifically about margins. We're realizing the $25 to $27 lower cost per device right now as we speak. So that's why you're seeing some of these margins, and we're realizing this cash flow.

如果是他們每週去 3 到 5 次的商店，他們可以回到那裡，而該商店老闆只需為該客戶保留該產品支付很少的剩餘付款。好吧，那個店主有既得利益說，「嘿，亞當，嘿，夥計，告訴你什麼，將你的問題發短信給 SURG，然後客戶服務人員會幫助你。他們得到了 - 他們會照顧好它。如果您需要任何其他信息，請告訴我。他們有電子郵件地址和電話號碼。我們可以幫助您。我們會為您提供支持。”因此，為了保留客戶並降低成本，永久參與社區是一種完全不同的心態。還要記住，您特別詢問了利潤率。正如我們所說，我們現在已經意識到每台設備的成本降低了 25 至 27 美元。這就是為什麼你會看到其中一些利潤，而我們正在實現這種現金流。

Right. And the unit -- obviously, the unit economics drivers are all improving, and that's really nice to see on the -- does that mean that as we sort of exit 2023 and you scale up towards your target of 0.5 million subscribers as you exit the year that we could be posting EBITDA margins in the double digits in the fourth quarter, even with that rate of growth, you get a mid-teens EBITDA margin here in the first?

正確的。很明顯，單位經濟驅動因素都在改善，這真的很高興看到——這是否意味著，當我們退出 2023 年時，你會擴大規模，實現 50 萬訂戶的目標。今年我們可能會在第第四季度實現兩位數的EBITDA 利潤率，即使以這樣的成長率，您在第一季的EBITDA 利潤率也達到了十幾歲左右？

Are you talking about per quarter or for the year?

你說的是季度還是全年？

Oh, I'm sorry, I should have been clear about that, Brian. For the fourth quarter, could you exit the year with an EBITDA? Where could you exit the year for fourth quarter EBITDA margin given that you did mid-teens here in the first?

哦，對不起，我應該說清楚的，布萊恩。對於第四季度，您能以 EBITDA 結束這一年嗎？考慮到今年第一季的 EBITDA 利潤率只有十幾歲，那麼今年第四季的 EBITDA 利潤率在哪裡？

I don't want to necessarily give EBITDA guidance. And the reason I laugh at that is that I know what I think it's going to be, and I would hesitate to put that out there because you guys would think I'm crazy. But at the same time, conservatively, I think you could basically take what we did in the first quarter and extrapolate that upward as a skew.

我不一定要給出 EBITDA 指導。我笑的原因是我知道我的想法會是什麼，我會猶豫是否要把它放在那裡，因為你們會認為我瘋了。但同時，保守地說，我認為你基本上可以採用我們在第一季所做的事情並將其向上推斷為傾斜。

I think the skew of customer growth and store growth will be more heavily skewed in the third quarter and fourth quarter. Right now, as all of these -- the components of bringing on a chain of stores or stores are -- you've got to get your point-of-sale materials out, the poster, the door sticker, the gas pump starburst, the little rack card that sits up by the cash register that creates awareness for people that, "Hey, are you on government benefits? Well, you're entitled to this one as well, ask at the register." That's very, very important. Simple training of the store.

我認為第三季和第四季客戶成長和商店成長的偏差將更加嚴重。現在，正如所有這些——建立連鎖店或商店的組成部分——你必須拿出你的銷售點材料，海報、門貼、加油泵星爆，收銀機旁邊有一張小架子卡，它可以讓人們意識到，“嘿，你領取政府福利嗎？好吧，你也有權享受這一福利，請在收銀台詢問。”這非常非常重要。簡單的店面培訓。

We had our development team create videos because we've quickly found out we do not have the manpower to train all of these stores that are in the pipeline. So we created kind of like, if you want to call it, modules of training, very simple 1- or 2-minute videos, where people -- store owners and clerks can watch and basically get certified and understand our platform. So there's those components as well that have all been built that we'll start seeing the fruition of that.

我們讓我們的開發團隊製作視頻，因為我們很快就發現我們沒有人力來培訓所有這些正在籌備中的商店。因此，我們創建了類似（如果你想稱之為培訓模組）的培訓模組，非常簡單的 1 或 2 分鐘視頻，人們（商店老闆和店員）可以觀看並基本上獲得認證並了解我們的平台。因此，這些元件也已經全部建置完成，我們將開始看到其成果。

And look, we're doing the best we can to grow as fast as we can, but the right way. So you're going to see each quarter have an increase of stores because now we're more efficient, and those stores are obviously compounding on what we did last quarter, and we're learning what types of stores need what types of training. A supermarket with multiple clerks has a different training mindset than a store, that's a Bodega where the owner who has a vested interest in every transaction at that store is at the store.

看，我們正在盡最大努力以盡可能快的速度成長，但方式是正確的。因此，您將看到每個季度的商店數量都有所增加，因為現在我們的效率更高，而且這些商店顯然與我們上季度所做的事情相結合，並且我們正在了解哪些類型的商店需要哪些類型的培訓。擁有多名店員的超市與商店的培訓理念不同，商店是一家酒窖，店主在該商店的每筆交易中都擁有既得利益。

We've got some other integrations that are going to be really interesting where we're working with independently owned ATM company software, where every time somebody swipes that reloadable debit card, it's kind of a given that customer doesn't have a checking account, most likely they're on some type of government benefit. Being able to ask them on the screen of the ATM if there are anyone in their households on government benefits, and then being able to secure their mobile number through the ATM. There's some pretty powerful things that we're going to be able to see that you -- I think let's call it the ground, the traction that's starting to turn the automobile 18-wheeler wheels right now, but they're going to pick up steam in the third and fourth quarter.

我們還有一些其他的集成，這些集成將非常有趣，我們與獨立擁有的 ATM 公司軟體合作，每次有人刷可充值借記卡時，就假定客戶沒有支票帳戶，很可能他們正在享受某種類型的政府福利。能夠在 ATM 的螢幕上詢問他們家裡是否有人領取政府福利，然後能夠透過 ATM 取得他們的手機號碼。我們將能夠看到一些非常強大的東西——我想我們稱之為地面，現在開始轉動汽車 18 輪車輪的牽引力，但它們將會加速第三季和第四季蒸汽。

That's very helpful. I appreciate it. That's helpful color. Will you permit me one more quick one? And if you will. Can you give us a little bit of an update on what you've been seeing in terms of average monthly customer attrition in recent months. Is that improving? Is that pretty stable around your historical levels?

這非常有幫助。我很感激。這是有用的顏色。你能允許我再快一點嗎？如果你願意的話。您能否向我們介紹一下近幾個月來平均每月客戶流失情況的最新情況。這樣有改善嗎？這在你的歷史水平附近相當穩定嗎？

It's stable, but you may -- it almost -- you almost make me want to scratch my skin on that because I'm still itch thinking about that because it's definitely -- I'm kind of a maniac about that. I'm always looking for ways to keep a customer once we've earned it. All of my income that I've ever done as a business model that I ever wanted to do was always reoccurring revenue through subscriber-base. And so there are definitely all types of things that we're deploying, even a reward systems that we're deploying to entice customers to stay on and simply use the product. We're testing right now.

它是穩定的，但你可能——它幾乎——你幾乎讓我想抓破我的皮膚，因為我仍然很癢想這個，因為它絕對是——我對此有點瘋狂。一旦我們贏得了客戶，我總是在尋找留住客戶的方法。我曾經作為我想要做的商業模式所做的所有收入始終是透過訂閱者基礎產生的重複收入。因此，我們肯定正在部署各種類型的東西，甚至是我們正在部署的獎勵系統，以吸引客戶繼續使用產品。我們現在正在測試。

Obviously, the program we talked about reimburses the device, a tablet device, but we also have access to smartphones. We don't get reimbursed for the smartphone, but is that a longer-term customer if we can offer them a smartphone. If it's the SIM card only, well, then they can put that in their phone and they can use it. Well, that customer be a longer-term customer. Because at the end of the day, especially as we all watched Mint Mobile being purchased for over $1 billion with just over 2 million subscribers, they definitely elevated what you'd consider the valuation per subscriber for prepaid wireless. So that was kind of encouraging, kind of juiced and jazzed all of us. But that's definitely something that we're going to continue to look at.

顯然，我們談論的計劃可以報銷設備，平板電腦設備，但我們也可以使用智慧型手機。我們不會獲得智慧型手機的報銷，但如果我們能為他們提供智慧型手機，他們就會成為長期客戶。如果只是 SIM 卡，那麼他們可以將其放入手機中並可以使用。好吧，該客戶是長期客戶。因為歸根結底，尤其是當我們都看到 Mint Mobile 被以超過 10 億美元的價格收購、擁有超過 200 萬用戶時，他們肯定提高了你所認為的預付費無線每位用戶的估值。所以這有點令人鼓舞，讓我們所有人都興奮不已。但這絕對是我們將繼續關注的事情。

And I think the stores are going to really help us reduce attrition because, like I said, that customer does business with that store. That's their guy. That's the guy that they buy their cigarettes from, their coffee from, their Doritos, they go in there 3 to 5 times a week. And it's almost a perception that I'm buying -- I got my service through him or her. It's not some random company that I got from a tent. It's them. I need to do business with them because I see them all the time. So we really do feel like that's going to really help reduce that and continue to help us grow. But it's right at where it is historically, but we're (inaudible) that I have a whole team of people that constantly work on the data analysts and business intelligence of that component to definitely try to keep it at one of the better in the industry. But again, that's definitely a focus of mine personally.

我認為這些商店將真正幫助我們減少人員流失，因為正如我所說，客戶與該商店開展業務。那是他們的傢伙。他們就是從那個人那裡買香菸、咖啡、多力多滋的，他們每週去那裡 3 到 5 次。這幾乎是一種我正在購買的感覺——我透過他或她獲得了我的服務。這不是我從帳篷裡隨機得到的公司。是他們。我需要與他們做生意，因為我一直看到他們。所以我們確實覺得這將真正有助於減少這種情況並繼續幫助我們成長。但這是正確的歷史位置，但我們（聽不清楚）我有一個完整的團隊，不斷致力於該組件的數據分析師和商業智能，以絕對努力使其保持在行業中最好的水平之一行業。但同樣，這絕對是我個人關注的焦點。

(Operator Instructions) And our next question will come from Michael Diana with Maxim Group.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題將來自 Maxim Group 的 Michael Diana。

So you've focused on stores as being extremely important here. And I've heard you mention a few numbers. I think you said 13,000 by the end of the year and then the release that says over 25,000 within 12 months. Could you tell us like how many active stores do you have now? And is that the program 13,000 by the end of the year and 25,000 by like midyear next year?

因此，您將重點放在商店上，因為這裡非常重要。我聽到你提到了一些數字。我想你說的是到年底發布 13,000 個，然後發布的內容是在 12 個月內發布超過 25,000 個。您能告訴我們您現在有多少個活躍商店嗎？計劃是在今年年底前達到 13,000 個，到明年年中達到 25,000 個嗎？

Yes. No, it's exactly what -- and that's allowing us time to definitely want to -- I do not want to use the word slow roll. But like I talk with Jeremy, who's the President of our fintech subsidiary, I talked to him every night. We always talk about growing the right way. And the right way is making sure that the stores have the material.

是的。不，這正是——這讓我們有時間明確地想要——我不想使用“慢速滾動”這個詞。但就像我和我們金融科技子公司的總裁傑里米交談一樣，我每天晚上都和他交談。我們總是談論以正確的方式成長。正確的方法是確保商店有材料。

You could have 20,000 transactions going through a store a week, but if your material is not up in the store, there's 0 awareness that the customers need to ask at the register to -- about our products. And for that matter, even the other products, being able to pay their prepaid Boost, TracFone, MetroPCS, Cricket, the ability that now they can just pay their bill up at the register. So the point-of-sale material is of utmost importance at the store, making sure not only that it's shipped out to the store, it is put up in the store.

您的商店每周可能會發生 20,000 筆交易，但如果您的材料不在商店中，則客戶需要在收銀台詢問我們的產品的意識為零。就此而言，即使是其他產品，也能夠支付預付費的 Boost、TracFone、MetroPCS、Cricket，現在他們可以在收銀台支付帳單。因此，銷售點材料在商店中至關重要，不僅要確保將其運送到商店，還要確保將其放置在商店中。

We have some relationships with distributor companies like H. T. Hackney, that have hundreds of salespeople that operate out of 26 distribution warehouses in regions across the Southeast and Midwest, and incentivizing those salespeople to get the store set up and send us a picture of the point-of-sale materials set up in the store and they get an extra little spiff per picture per store.

我們與H. T. Hackney 等分銷公司有一些關係，這些公司擁有數百名銷售人員，在東南部和中西部地區的26 個分銷倉庫中運營，並激勵這些銷售人員建立商店並向我們發送一張圖片— —商店裡設置了銷售材料，每張照片每家商店都會獲得額外的一點獎勵。

Little things like that, we're trying, we're testing. We're comparing that to signing up, for example, a 200-store chain. Well, we don't have a sales guy and the store ownership is responsible, understand what's working, what's yielding the best results. So those are all the things that we're doing right now. Learning from it and then implementing what's best.

像這樣的小事情，我們正在嘗試，我們正在測試。例如，我們將其與註冊擁有 200 家商店的連鎖店進行比較。好吧，我們沒有銷售人員，店主負責，了解什麼是有效的，什麼會產生最好的結果。這些就是我們現在正在做的所有事情。從中學習，然後實施最好的方法。

So to answer your question, by the end of the year, I definitely feel like we'll be over 13,000 stores. That was our conservative estimate we wanted to put out there. Right now, we've got what, 8,000 stores, I believe, on the network. But that can change very, very quickly. We're testing. And I'm a testing animal. There's certain networks out there that we may look at taking over, acquiring, that are just simply networks where people are doing one-off products, the convenience stores where we can basically buy their preexisting relationship of 100, 500, 1,000 stores, 2,000 stores, then deploy our entire suite of products on that store, meaning that network has a much higher value to us as a company than it did to that one-off product company. Those are the ways that we're looking to grow that as well. So 25,000 staged over the next 12 months and 13,000 by the end of the year. I do believe we'll exceed that, but that's what we'll go with right now.

因此，回答你的問題，到今年年底，我絕對認為我們的商店數量將超過 13,000 家。這是我們想要公佈的保守估計。現在，我相信我們的網路上有 8,000 家商店。但這種情況可能會改變得非常非常快。我們正在測試。我是一隻實驗動物。我們可能會考慮接管、收購某些網絡，這些網絡只是人們生產一次性產品的網絡，我們基本上可以在便利商店購買他們先前存在的 100、500、1,000 家商店、2,000 家商店的關係，然後在該商店上部署我們的整套產品，這意味著網路對我們公司的價值比對一次性產品公司的價值要高得多。這些也是我們尋求發展的方式。因此，在接下來的 12 個月內將上演 25,000 場，到年底將上演 13,000 場。我確實相信我們會超越這個目標，但這就是我們現在要做的。

There are no further questions at this time. We will now conclude today's conference. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.

目前沒有其他問題。我們現在結束今天的會議。感謝您的加入，祝您有個愉快的一天。